Zzungry? Royal Indian food and five-star quality meals under US$6

Photo credit: Wikipedia

At a time when food tech in India was being looked upon as toxic by all and sundry, three entrepreneurs in Bangalore decided to ignore the headlines and chase a passion that was ready to be turned into a business.

The idea? To make authentic, decadent, and sometimes lost recipes of India – typically the stuff of five-star restaurant menus – available to everyone for the asking.

We are not making daal, because your mother will make that for you

When Subash Baliga, Sandeep Rana, and Ashish Kalya founded Zzungry last year and went operational about three months ago, the plan was to challenge the idea of ordering in as we know it.

Zzungry targets the same customers as rival Freshmenu, with the average item typically costing less than US$6. While Freshmenu focuses on global cuisine, Zzungry has decided to revive old, forgotten dishes from various parts of India.

So out went the ubiquitous Butter Chicken and Paneer Palak, and in came Kofta E Gulmarg, Hyderabadi Kalmi Kebabs, and more.

The team, with the help of chef Rajeev, who quit his job at the Taj group of hotels for this gig, picked authentic dishes from about seven states in India and packaged them for easy eating.

“We picked and chose some of the finest dishes from these states that would have appeal for most people. We are not making daal, because your mother will make that for you,” Subash told Tech In Asia.

“We wanted to go one step deeper and into cuisines that have not been greatly understood or easily available. All the secret, old Indian recipes are only available in bigger restaurant formats, which is not affordable to people. We want to change that.”

Subhash said he was confident the idea would work because of his long association with food – Subhash has run and been a part of some successful restaurant chains in the city.

“If you look at the food tech firms that closed or scaled back, they were all run by VC money and none of them knew the challenges of the food industry,” he said.

“If you scale without understanding economics, obviously you will fail.”

Not your mother’s daal

Slow and steady